


Prologue

by dogmatix, norcumi



Series: Unintended Consequences [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Cliffhangers, F/F, F/M, GFY, Loss, M/M, Multi, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-22 12:55:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2508629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix, https://archiveofourown.org/users/norcumi/pseuds/norcumi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christophsis was one of those planets. Pretty buildings and stones that shattered into horrifying shrapnel, hiding all sorts of droids and eventually even betrayal.</p>
<p>Rex had never figured out if he should hunt down Slick, months after the fact, to thank the bastard for making his sex life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very preliminary post. This fic **will not** be updated for ages. I will possibly not go into why.
> 
> This begins right after the Clone Wars episode [The Hidden Enemy](http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/clone-wars/the-hidden-enemy) \-- spoilers abound.

Christophsis was one of those planets. Pretty buildings and stones that shattered into horrifying shrapnel, hiding all sorts of droids and eventually even betrayal.

Rex had never figured out if he should hunt down Slick, months after the fact, to thank the bastard for making his sex life.

He'd been standing around as Cody had hauled the bastard away, not daring to move since groin poppers were a fucking beast. He'd managed to somehow limp out long enough to report to the generals, but anything more was just not happening. He was exhausted, battle had been brutal, and to find that there was a traitor, and the Generals had been riding off into a certain trap, AGAIN – some days it was just too much for any clone. Medical could fucking well wait. Food and rest would have to damn well wait. He just leaned up against a wall, eyes closed and soul weary. He did what he always resorted to when it was a little too much: he took the time to recite remembrance. Thanks to Slick, he had a bunch of new names to add into his litany, but it was a steadying ritual. He could remember the good, not just the death.

These brothers had lived.

He remembered them, their names, their individual quirks.

Their lives meant something.

He'd heard movement soon after he started, but if some fucking clankers had made it onto base, then they fucking well could take a few potshots at his head since it wasn't like he could move far anyways. Whoever it was came up with a determined stride, then stopped abruptly. They waited a polite distance away, then partway through, he could hear a voice. Very faintly, so faintly he couldn't swear who it was, someone joined in with their own chant.

When he opened his eyes, he somehow wasn't incredibly surprised to see General Kenobi. The Jedi stood with his eyes closed, mouth moving through his own list of names, and Rex wasn't surprised at all to hear flawless Mando'a. When General Kenobi had looked up, there had been compassion, _understanding_. Then he'd walked forward, watching Rex for permission – granted, of course, even if he didn't understand a damn thing – then reached out to lightly rest his fingertips against Rex's armor. It was just at the edge of his upper right  cuisses, and under any other circumstance, he'd have paid good credits to be some other clone who wouldn't be so damned uncomfortable with the man touching him like that.

Thankfully, groin poppers were a beast.

Then a sensation like bacta but both gentler and faster flowed under his skin, soothing away the pain. Within moments, General Kenobi removed his hand. Rex felt...normal. Healed.

Force healing tended to be for Force users. Bacta was good enough for clones.

Then the General had respectfully asked him if he wanted to talk, and he could practically feel the exhaustion riding the man. The Jedi.

…the man.

They had ended up in the General's office, and he'd learned about General Kenobi's past with the Mandalorians. They had just talked, for several hours until both were punch drunk with exhaustion and the need to be around someone who seemed to understand stopped overriding the need to get rest.

Rex had managed to not stagger back to his room, in no small part because he kept feeling awed at the painless movement of his leg.

That was the first night he jacked off to General Kenobi.

Either Jedi weren't the grand mind readers they were supposed to be, or the General – unlike General Skywalker – knew how to be discrete. Nothing was said, no discouragement was given, certainly no  _encouragement_ was given, but the talks continued intermittently. 

Then there was a joint operation, several Jedi, their companies, and the droids. They'd pulled out hours later in a horrible rout. They had ended up on the Resolute, the combined remnants of the 501 and 212. Rex had seen two padawans and at least one Jedi struck down, and the way General Kenobi had been too late to stop it.

He'd seen the man's eyes, the howling fury that was almost immediately enclosed in emotional ice as he'd done his level best to slaughter countless droids. General Skywalker and Cody were the ones to literally pull the battling Jedi off the field. Rex at least had been able to provide cover fire.

Rex had gotten into the habit of worrying about his Jedi, Skywalker and Kenobi. Yes, technically General Kenobi was Cody's purview, but they had made a polite, quiet agreement to share. Some of that was simple self preservation; no one clone could keep up with either of them.

Underneath it all, Rex knew at least some of it was selfish. He liked thinking he and General Kenobi were friends. Absurd. A Jedi and a clone.

Might as well wish it was the Jedi touching him those nights, not himself.

Yet that night, he'd walked quiet, subdued halls practically ringing with depression, and he'd knocked on General Kenobi's door. He'd brought some Corillian brandy with him as a peace offering, and the hope that perhaps conversation would soothe that horrible look in the General's eyes.

He hadn't expected the General to open the door, take the bottle, and pull him in only to hold on to him. Rex had never been sure who started the first kiss, but he knew the motions, he knew the feel, he just had never thought that Jedi were like mortal clones.

Apparently Jedi needed comfort too.

That had been the first time. There was none of General Skywalker's sometimes hilariously clumsy attempts at subterfuge, the heat of unrestrained passion.  In the dark of General Kenobi's cabin or office, very very quietly the other man was Obi-Wan – not the General, not Kenobi. A brother with a different face and body, a soldier who needed a lover because Jedi Code or no, no one could survive this kind of war without something,  _someone_ to heal the wounds of the soul and not just the body. It was comfort, it was contact, it was reminder that life was important and relevant and taking a suicidal charge into blasterfire wasn't going to do anyone any good. 

By the third time, Rex was fairly certain that he would always be content with that.

By the fifth, he knew it.

By the tenth, he wasn't sure when he'd surrendered his heart.

General Kenobi was a Jedi. He had to know. Obi-Wan was kind enough to never acknowledge it.

No matter how he felt, no matter what General Kenobi did, Rex was a soldier. He was a professional. He could be in love with a Jedi and not be stupid about it.

The greatest challenge was constantly rescuing General Skywalker's stupid, over-romantic, hormonal ass from being discovered with his Senator wife – without making inappropriate comments.

Some days, he wondered about his General's ability to sense emotions in the Force – it was beyond him how the hell anyone could be so blind to frustrated sarcasm, barely veiled hints, and double entendre when Rex's own supposed lack of a love life was poked with a stick.

Padme at least understood, and was kind enough to send regular booze. She'd been smart enough to sit down and ask him about the implications of bribes, gifts, and when would it be understood that she really, truly did just want to express appreciation for the hard working soldiers of the Republic.

If General Skywalker wasn't irretrievably smitten, and Rex not thoroughly gone over General Kenobi, he might well have proposed to the woman right there in her office.

Two years, seven months, and eleven days after the war started, countless opportunities fucking or cuddling or otherwise providing physical reminders of something other than war, Obi-Wan turned everything upside down.

General Kenobi had called Rex to his office. They had discussed joint tactics for the upcoming battle.

Then Obi-Wan had looked him in the eyes, taken a deep breath, and tentatively asked if...perhaps...Rex might want to try...more.

For the first time, Rex made an utter fool of himself. He'd stammered out something awkward, sounding like a horrible holonovel, asking that whatever they were doing, please do it slow. General Kenobi had accepted that graciously.

The war had been far less kind.

Rex had already known that the time their paths crossed had shrunk, but it kept shrinking. General Kenobi and General Skywalker were in high demand, and their presence could often turn the battle in favor of the Republic. Obi-Wan and Rex had fewer and fewer encounters, until he realized the war had stretched out impossibly far.

Then General Kenobi...disappeared.

The first week he was too busy to worry.

The second week, a haggard, distraught Anakin confessed that he couldn't feel Obi-Wan in the Force. It wasn't a sure sign of death – Force inhibitors had fooled the Jedi before, and Kenobi had come back from that.

The third week, he added Obi-Wan Kenobi's name to his chants.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks be to Flamethrower, for egging us on. <3


End file.
